Description

Modern large commercial transport aircraft designs rely on sophisticated flight computers to aid and protect the aircraft in flight. These are governed by computational laws which assign flight control modes during flight.

Aircraft with fly-by-wire flight controls require computer controlled flight control modes that are capable of determining the operational mode (computational law) of the aircraft. A reduction of electronic flight control can be caused by the failure of a computational device, such as a flight control computer, an information providing device, such as the Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) or the failure of multiple systems (dual hydraulic failure, dual engine failure etc). Electronic flight control systems (EFCS) also provide augmentation in normal flight, such as increased protection of the aircraft from overstress or providing a more comfortable flight for passengers, by recognizing and correcting for turbulence and providing yaw damping.